LGC 006 – 10 Tips For Successful Cheese Making

Comments

1. West Keller Dentist says

   31/01/2020 at 13:24

   We often try to make cheese at home, but many a times it the procedure which we follow is not the correct way.
   I again tried using the tips which you mentioned and the result is right in front of my eyes. I was able to make a perfect cheese cube.

   Thanks once again for these tips.

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2. Irene Jennings says

   08/10/2013 at 02:18

   I was inspired to make mozzarella after I read about veggiegobbler and your session a while back. I followed your 30min mozzarella youtube link and sadly ended up with ricotta. But I decided to give it another go and second time round I had delicious mozzarella! I've since had a go at halloumi which turned out great. As you say, its all about giving it a go!!

   Irene (http://www.brentcornelius.com)

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3. Anonymous says

   29/06/2013 at 01:48

   Hello Gavin

   Your podcast question this week from Pat about whey collecting under the wax during the ageing process was interesting as that is something that I frequently get too. I believe I may have the answer, or at least part of it.

   Reading my old book by John Ehle, “The Cheeses and Wines of England and France,” many of the cheeses he describes are made by mixing the previous evening’s milk with the fresh morning’s milk. Of course in those days they didn’t have fancy dehydrated starter cultures and had to rely on the natural bacteria in the air. By leaving the evening milk overnight it naturally acidified sufficiently for their particular cheese and for accelerating the action of the rennet.

   I read elsewhere that dry crumbly cheese is often a result of allowing the milk to get too acid and that makes the curds hard instead of creamy. I also read that reducing the acidity by washing the curds (presumably in washed curd type cheeses) helps to prevent dry crumbly cheese by reducing the acidity.

   If I am lucky enough to get some fresh farm milk, I usually get it in the evening and keep it at about 14 degrees overnight, then make my cheese in the morning mixing it with a similar amount of store-bought milk. i.e. following the traditional way described by John Ehle. Although the store-bought milk is pasteurized it is frequently at least 24 hours old before it gets to the dairy for pasteurization. The on-farm milk tanks are cooled but the milk isn’t necessarily picked up every day. So, there could be some natural acidification of the store-bought milk before it is pasteurized thus stopping any further action by the lacto bacilli.

   So we have milk that is already slightly acidic and then we add our starter culture to get it to acidify even more! If the recipe says to let the culture ripen for 60 minutes, perhaps that is too long and was calculated on milk straight from the cow. What we really need is a pH meter to check these things otherwise it is too hit and miss. In thinking about it my Edam and Drunken Cow cheeses have not been dry and crumbly, so perhaps the acid reducing washing is responsible.

   For my next batch I intend to reduce the ripening time and see what happens.

   I suspect it is the dry crumbly cheeses that exude whey, though your questioner, Pat, didn’t specifically say so. If you check your records Gavin, would you be able to detect when you had whey under the wax whether it was from farm milk that had been allowed to acidify for a day or two before you got it? And whether those wet cheeses were crumbly? Have you ever seen whey under the wax in a creamy cheese or a washed curd cheese?

   Cheers
   David

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   • Cheeseadmin says

     30/06/2013 at 11:32

     Thanks David. Yes, I do find that the fresher the milk, the better it performs. Good advice for Pat and anyone else who has made a crumbly cheese that may have liquid trapped under the wax.

     It may be a good idea to get a pH meter here as well, but I have been having a good run with my cheeses lately.

     Gav

     Reply